Down the Path
by Malicious Maelstrom
Summary: In the year 2030 the world is deprived of the majority of it's people. There are mostly lone wanders and stationary groups that dwell. Allen, a lone wanderer for six years after the disappearance of his parents, meets a stationary group. ON HOLD
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters associated with -Man. I just like making them dance for me.**

"_Although we have no obligation_

_to stay alive,_

_on broken backs _

_we beg for mercy._

_We will survive."_

Behind Closed Doors- Rise Against

I don't think that people thought the world would end this way in the year 2012. With all the fuss they made about the world ending, people made it seem like the world would blow up somehow or implode on itself. At least, that's what I heard from the stories my parents told me...when I still had parents anyways. It's 2030 now, 18 years after the infamous 2012. The world ended, but I think it ended differently in the way people thought it would.

What had happened, my parents told me, was that a huge asteroid hit the Earth. While odd, it was only news for a few months before events more interesting came up. My parents said, that it started happening slowly. Random households would have their lights flicker now and then, but it became more frequent and much longer. This happened a year later after the asteroid hit. They said, they thought it maybe happened a few months after it but, less frequent and much shorter and hit less houses ; so it looked like regular electric problems. Three years after the asteroid hit did all the electricity failed. A few months after that, it stopped raining and stayed forever sunny and just got hotter and hotter.

That was when survival of the fittest started and slowly, Earth's population began to decrease. The first to go off were the sick, then the elders, followed by much younger children, toddlers and such. Then it depended if you were physically fit to survive, or knew how to kill or what plants to eat. Sadly, that wasn't the worst of it. An unknown disease had hit a good amount of the population -during the year what they believed was 2022-, like the Black Plague during the Medieval era(whatever that is.). We lacked working hospitals and doctors, the disease ended up wiping almost everyone. My parents and I were the few lucky individuals that didn't get hit. Now, I'm not sure how many people are left on this planet; I wouldn't even be surprise if I happened to be the last person on this planet. After that, towns, cities and villages have been abandoned it seems. The buildings are still intact though, besides some smaller stores and lower levels having broken windows because of wild riots that formed when electronics stopped working and grocery stores ran out of food.

I don't remember a whole lot of what happened, since I was born only a few days after the asteroid hit and still slightly young during some of it. These stories are all I have left of my parents, besides the lessons on how to hold on my own. What happened to them, I'm not sure. I was 12 when one day, I saw them right before I went to bed and, then I woke up in another part of the city with my parents gone.

Was I heart broken? Immensely so. Betrayed? I got through that stage a long, long time ago. Now, six years later, I'm just a wanderer. Staying in one place for so long gets boring, and runs out of game fast since there is little of it. I'll go for a minimum of two days without food, and barely a day without water. Lucky, my parents left me a plastic water jug to put whatever water I find in it. Sometimes I'll get lucky and find houses that still have a running hose and I'll fill it up. But, that only happened about three times I think. Typically I would find a small pond and fill it up full and boil it in a pot I picked up at a old Kroger store that happened to have a small amount of items left. I also found lighter fluid there and a lighter at a gas station. Sticks are everywhere now, so it's easy to build and start a fire. I try to rashen my water supply by drinking when I most absolutely need to. It can be days or longer before I can even find more water. So, I wander.

I have no set path and just go any direction that my gut tells me too. Like it matters where I go anyways, the chances of actually finding another person is small. I haven't even left the state yet, just slowly making my way up North. Traveling by night and sleeping during the day, a safer way of getting through. At least animals are less likely to attack me during the day than at night, where it's easier to hide. It's also less likely more me to be unguarded for a person to attack me. That's what I am scared of the most. Not the animal or even the person attacking me but, it's meeting a person. That is what I am truly afraid of.


	2. Chapter 1

"_I walk a lonely road  
>The only one that I have ever known<br>Don't know where it goes  
>But it's home to me and I walk alone"<em>

Green Day- Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

**Chapter One**

June was always considered one of the hottest months of the summer. Today, it felt like the day was so much hotter than any day in June, even if it wasn't June. Allen wasn't sure anymore, for all he know it could have been November and there wouldn't be any distinction that it was. He just sat in an empty gas station in some unknown town, trying to escape the hotter than a June day heat. The back of his hand laid over his sweat covered forehead, feet propped up on the counter and chair tilted backwards as his eyes drifted up to the ceiling.

One month since the day he had arrived here in this town. His water jug was reaching dangerously low, almost to the point it wasn't even there. There was little game here, Allen hadn't seen a rabbit or squirrel running around since two days ago. He ignored the rumbling pains his stomach gave, just one of the small perks of trying to survive, he supposes. Allen learned to ignore a lot of things the years he has been wandering what was once America. The physical pain of tired and sore joints, his stomach rumbling in dire need of something to eat; those were the easy parts. Anything emotional, mental, that was so much harder.

The thought of possibly being the last person on this forsaken planet, his parents leaving him suddenly, and the omnipresence that he would end up dying very soon because lack of water and food. These constantly attacked his mind on an everyday bases. There wasn't anything to distract his mind from thinking such things either. It was the same old scenery in every town that he crossed during his years of wandering. Cracked dry dirt that when blown upon dust flies everywhere, leaving a yellow stain on the horizon. Huge buildings that were once prized, envied and had a spit shine to their magnificent chrome, are now nothing more than dirtied buildings and broken windows.

Sometimes, during his restless sleep he would think about the 'what if'. What if the asteroid didn't hit Earth and unleash a chain of unfortunate events to the once abundant human populace. Or, what if his parents didn't suddenly disappear, leaving him at the tender age of 12 to deal with a harsh, lifeless world alone. What if he had the education of any 18 year old pre-2012. Would he know what those black boxes are, the huge heaps of metal with wheels, or the small rectangles with small buttons to press. That was all it was, a bunch of what if's that will never come true in his life time, or possibly ever.

Allen shook his head, brushing those negative thoughts aside and shifted up a bit more so all four legs of the chair touched the floor. Having those kind of thoughts never did any justice for him, only leaving him with a hallow feeling in the pit of his stomach, and just wondering all the possibilities for him. Brushing the small particles of dust off his knee cut pants, Allen grabbed his almost empty jug of water and went outside the gas station. He ignored the rush of hot, dry air to his face and took his first step forward. The sun was still high up in the middle of a cloudless sky, its rays beating down onto the ground with such intense heat, Allen saw waves distorting his vision.

He studied his surrounding, not sure of which would be the best way to take. It doesn't matter anymore, everywhere was basically the same for what Allen has seen so far. Lifeless, abandoned, empty, and sad. Both directions lead to the same path, to nothing. It just depended on how fast he wanted to get there and how far he was willing to go.

Left. Left seemed like a good choice.

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own -Man only this poorly thought out plot that the characters play along to.<strong>

**All anonymous reviews will be answered on my profile page. **


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